Laredo, season 2
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episode 31: The Legend of Midas Mantee |
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Friday, |
Hollingsworth Morse |
Frederick Shorr |
Gerry Day and B.W. Sandefur |
Gerry Day and B.W. Sandefur |
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A criminal mastermind out of prison after 20 years hires Hai Jali and ex-US Army camels to begin his new crime wave. This episode introduces Erik Hunter, a transfer from Company A, clearly based on the wildly successful James Bond series of movies. Reese bets Erik $5 Midas Mantee won't try to rob Portrero, where he was arrested 20 years before--and loses. Erik helps the gang escape and almost steals the payroll himself, but is stopped by Reese. Erik tells Reese that Captain Parmalee's orders are for them to allow Midas Mantee to get away with an Army payroll and infiltrate the gang. Therefore, Reese must treat Erik like a prisoner so that Erik can escape him and rejoin the gang. Erik escapes Reese, handcuffing him to his saddle, and goes on to Val Verde, where Chad and Joe are awaiting Mantee's next move. He spots one of the gang from Portrero talking to a nurse by the dentist's office as he rides in. A few minutes later, he causes her horse to bolt so he can introduce himself to her and set up a flirtation. Later, he tells Chad and Joe about "Captain Parmalee's" plan. In order to establish his bona fides, he proposes a fake gunfight the next day in which he will be recognized as an outlaw and "kill" Chad. Standing in the street awaiting Erik's arrival--wearing black and at high noon--Joe sings a portion of "The Streets of Laredo" (a.k.a. "The Cowboy's Lament") only to have Chad wrily remind him it's the wrong town. Reese finally arrives in town to see Chad lying "dead" in the middle of the street and Joe and Erik shooting at each other. Erik quickly shoots down the dentist's sign to knock Reese out before he can blow Erik's cover, then steals Cactus. Later, he turns up in the nurse's bedroom, telling her he wants to join the Mantee gang. Reese, awakened and told Chad's been killed and is lying in the ice house, arrives there with flowers, only to throw them at Chad when he sits up. Joe then leaves him to sit with Chad's "body" so he can trail the gangmember and try to find Mantee. He does, but is captured on arrival and tied up. The nurse takes Erik to the abandoned fort where Mantee is hiding out. Mantee is very suspicious of Erik, more than half inclined to kill him. He gives him a chance, however--all he has to do is kill the Ranger they have tied up outside--Joe. At that point, Reese and Chad, who followed him there, attack. Midas and the nurse escape on camels--pursued by Erik in Hai Jali's clothes--while Reese, Chad and Joe fight the rest of the gang. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 32: The Dance of the Laughing Death |
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Friday, |
Jerry Hopper |
Paul Mason |
Fred Freiberger |
Fred Freiberger |
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Indians go on the warpath, following a charlatan war chief, Tohpay, with a fake god apparently made out of lava or some other lightweight stone (although it's over six feet tall, when Erik and Tohpay bump into it, it wobbles) and with piping that causes flames to roar from its mouth. Tohpay has working for him a former Army officer ("the best the Army had" he modestly reminds the war chief) who has trained the braves to fight like military men instead of Indians. Garth's real object is to use the Indians to get rid of the Army and settlers, and then to get rid of the Indians so he and his gang will have the territory to themselves. They have captured a Gattling gun and a cannon from an Army post and braves are flocking to them from surrounding tribes when Captain Parmalee sends Chad, Reese, Joe and Erik out to stop them. When a cavalry sergeant protests it's suicide for them to go out there like that, that the odds against them are about a million to one, Captain Parmalee says those are the best odds they've faced all month--perhaps he should send only three. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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Friday, |
Abner Biberman |
Frederick Shorr |
Gene L. Coon |
Gene L. Coon |
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A doctor with a serum that renders men open to suggestion hypnotizes Reese to kill Cap'n Parmalee. Thanks only to Chad's recollection of a stage hynotist's act and his ability to research the subject in books he borrowed, the cause of Reese's odd behaviour is identified in time to save the day. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 34: Coup de Grace |
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Friday, |
R.G. Springsteen |
Paul Mason |
William Raynor and Myles Wilder |
William Raynor and Myles Wilder |
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Our heroes are assigned to protect a man given diplomatic sanctuary by the United States government, one of Juarez's revoluntionary leaders, but are lose him to men who take him back to Mexico to collect a reward from Maximilian. Sent into Mexico to save Morales and, incidentally, the dignity of the US and the Texas Rangers, the Rangers infiltrate a French Army base to rescue him... after the execution. One of the highlights of the episode is Reese, dressed as the condemned man's grieving wife, fighting off the amorous advances of a small Mexican soldier. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 35: The Land Slickers |
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Friday, |
Sherman Marks |
Paul Mason |
William Hellinger and Clint Young |
William Hellinger and Clint Young |
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Reese's enlistment is up and he's decided to leave the Rangers and become a rancher, but the land he buys with his life's savings is under an alkali lake. In scenes lifted almost verbatim from the movie version of Gunga Din, Reese's friends trick him into re-upping with the Rangers. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 36: Finnegan |
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Friday, |
Alexander Singer |
Frederick Shorr |
Edward J. Lakso |
Edward J. Lakso |
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The Rangers try to infiltrate a gang run along the lines of the Chicago mobs, whose leader is organizing criminal activity throughout Texas. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 37: Any Way the Wind Blows |
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Friday, |
John English |
Frederick Shorr |
John McGreevey |
John McGreevey |
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A circus troupe travels from town to town robbing banks, but no one can figure out how they're transporting the money--they never have it on them! |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 38: The Sweet Gang |
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Friday, |
Ezra Stone |
Paul Mason |
Walter Black |
Walter Black |
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Ma Sweet and her family try to waylay a mine payroll the Rangers have cleverly hidden in an ambulance. The robbery is stopped, but the Rangers all come down with measles. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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episode 39: One Two Many Voices |
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Friday, |
William Witney |
Frederick Shorr |
John McGreevey |
John McGreevy |
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A millionaire sportsman is a kidnapping target; it just so happens he and Reese have identical voices and the kidnappers have only heard, never seen, the millionaire. |
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All first season regulars appeared in this episode (Erik too?). |
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episode 40: Road to San Remo |
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Friday, |
Irving J. Moore |
Frederick Shorr |
Calvin Clements |
Calvin Clements |
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A little girl on her way to her uncle in San Remo leaves a trail of bad checks, including one to the Rangers for escorting her the last few miles. |
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All first season regulars appeared in this episode. |
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Friday, |
R.G. Springsteen |
Paul Mason |
Joseph Bonaduce and Jay Sims |
Jay Sims |
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A madman who thinks he's a Caesar is founding a Roman empire in Texas, built on the backs of slaves of "conquered" travelers and communities. In trying to solve the disappearance, Joe and Reese are captured: while Reese is put to work as a laborer, Joe becomes the emperor's new favorite gladiator. Meantime, Chad and Erik come up with a more comfortable method of infiltrating the empire: as an artist and architect, respectively. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode, possibly excepting Captain Parmalee. |
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episode 42: A Prince of a Ranger |
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Friday, |
Charles Rondeau |
Paul Mason |
Joseph Bonaduce |
Joseph Bonaduce |
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In an adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda, the Prince of Ambrasia--a dead ringer for Chad--comes to Laredo to sign a treaty between his Balkan country and the Latin American state of Agua Caldo (translation: cold water). To protect the prince from assassination attempts, Chad and the prince switch places. While the prince enjoys playing Texas Ranger, Chad enjoys flirting with the prince's fiancee. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode, with Peter Brown playing the duel role of Chad Cooper and the Prince of Ambrasia. |
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episode 43: Oh, Careless Love |
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Friday, |
Charles Rondeau |
Paul Mason |
Gilbert Ralston |
Gilbert Ralston |
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Left behind with Joe to stall for time while Chad and Cap'n Parmalee send for a federal representative to talk peace with a tribe of Indians, Reese accidentally ends up engaged to the Chief's daughter. |
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All second season regulars appeared in this episode, possibly excepting Erik Hunter. |
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[Laredo pilot] [season 1] [season 1, part 2] [season 2, part 2] [Laredo movies]
[Laredo anachronisms and inconsistencies] [The Cactus Saloon]